INTERNATIONAL. Further top names have joined a powerful speakers line-up for the Symposium part of the inaugural Moodie Davitt Travel Retail Virtual Expo.
“Ours is a premium show featuring premium speakers as well as cutting-edge digital technology,” said The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie. “At a pivotal time for the aviation, tourism and travel retail sectors, we are honoured by the presence of some of our industry’s most influential voices.”
The Expo – which takes the form of a ‘live’ 5-day event followed by a 30-day showcase – begins on 12 October (dates chosen to avoid clashes with the key Chinese and Jewish holidays immediately preceding it). It features a star-studded series of events and experiences across the five days, including the Symposium, category workshops and new consumer research findings.
The easily navigable Virtual Travel Retail Expo includes the Knowledge Hub, Exhibition Hub and Experience Hub. Buyers will be able to navigate the entire Expo without leaving their desks.
The Symposium and Workshops will feature a variety of new and sometimes groundbreaking formats. They will be played out across all days and multiple time zones to maximise attendance and add vibrancy to the Expo. Attendance is free to exhibitors, retailers/buyers and preferred press partners.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, with Martin Moodie before the 2019 Trinity Forum in Doha
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker and China Duty Free Group President Charles Chen will both be delivering presentations. Damazo Group Founder Oana Damian and Partner Muriel Zingraff (former Retail Concessions Director at Heathrow Airport), will deliver their view on where airport commercial services are headed in the post-COVID-19 era. That theme will be echoed in a compelling visual presentation from The Design Solution Founder & Director Robbie Gill on the airport of the future.
A dedicated cruise retail session with hear from Starboard Cruise Services President & CEO Lisa Bauer, Harding Managing Director James Prescott and other speakers to be named soon. A similar focus on inflight retail, both traditional and omnichannel will be led by the leader of KrisShop’s highly successful ecommerce-to-inflight business Chris Pok and Kian Gould, Founder of travel retail’s leading digital services provider AOE.
The event will also examine how retail promotions are likely to evolve in the new industry landscape through the expert eyes of Heidi Van Roon, Founder and CEO of Spark Business Services Group in Vancouver, a best-in-class staffing and recruitment firm for luxury retail, specialised in the airport environment.
The Expo is also working closely with most leading trade associations to help them in their efforts to drive industry recovery. Sunil Tuli, President of the Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association (APTRA) and Group Chief Executive of King Power Group Hong Kong will draw on his decades of experience in travel retail to identify the key tenets that are needed to underpin any long-term recovery. ASUTIL Secretary General José Luis Donagaray will apply a similar lens to the South American market.
As previously reported, Philippe Schaus, CEO of Moët Hennessy, the Wines and Spirits division of LVMH (and former DFS Group CEO) will deliver a keynote presentation in the form of a filmed interview with Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail CEO Mohit Lal, one of the leading figures in the Trinity discussions of recent years and an arch advocate of digitalisation, premiumisation, channel exclusivity and enhanced stakeholder partnership.
Three of the most progressive airport retail executives, all well-advanced in their omnichannel thinking, will feature: Fraser Brown, Retail Director; Auckland Airport General Manager Retail & Commercial Richard Barker; and Eugene Barry, Executive Vice President – Commercial at Dubai Airports.
Damazo Group Founder Oana Damian (left) and Partner Muriel Zingraff (former Retail Concessions Director at Heathrow Airport), will deliver their view on where airport commercial services are headed in the post-COVID-19 era.
Lagardère Travel Retail CEO Dag Rasmussen, another progressive voice in the Trinity debate, will offer his view via a live interview of a changing landscape and how stakeholders can better partner to grow the pie.
A dedicated cruise retail session will hear from Starboard Cruise Services President & CEO Lisa Bauer (left) while delegates will also hear how retail promotions are likely to evolve in the new industry landscape through the expert eyes of Heidi Van Roon, Founder and CEO of Spark Business Services Group in Vancouver
These speakers will be joined by Bain & Company Italy Partner Mauro Anastasi and Jack MacGowan, Director at Castlepole Consulting in Ireland and former CEO of Irish state-owned Aer Rianta International, who together produced an important paper called ‘COVID-19: A New World for Airports’, which formed the original discussion points for the just-launched Trinity Initiative.
Virtual visitors from all over the world will be able to view the presentations at times to suit their own agendas while also visiting the show.